Pinky Promises
by No-ThisIsAlex
Summary: AU "A second chance at life only means that there's something the gods want me to do that I haven't accomplished yet." Shinji said with a smile. Shinji never had anything to look forward to in life but he soon finds one after agreeing to return to high school. ShinjixHiyori RangikuXGin
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

A girl with no way out meets a boy whose whole life has been turned upside down.

I hate needles. I hate being poked. I hate taking tests. I hate hospitals. I don't like the way the heart monitoring machine beeps when I'm trying to sleep. I always find myself watched the little green line jump every time my heart beats.

I remember wishing that in the next second the line would go completely flat and the machine would give that distinct long beep. I would be gone, so I wouldn't have to be here anymore, hurting. I wouldn't have to take this pain anymore. After I was dead I wouldn't have to do through the pain of dying.

Then I looked over to my mom, the make-up she had put on that morning did nothing to cover the extremely dark circles underneath both of her eyes. It was the first time I had seen her sleeping in the last couple of weeks. The permanent tear streaks never left her face no matter how hard she tried to cover them.

I knew I didn't want to die, but I really had no choice. There wasn't anything I could do to fend off the cancer that was slowly eating its way through my body. I was slowly but surely killing myself and there was nothing I could so about it. The only thing I could do was lay here and watch them run their tests and try new medicines hoping that something would work.

Then I got the good news; I wasn't going to die. At least, not when I thought I was supposed to anyway. Whatever chemical concoction they had pumping into my through my IV had worked. I wouldn't be dying and I wasn't going to have to give up my entire lefts leg like my doctors had originally predicted.

My mother didn't cry that day, and for once I found myself genuinely happy. Happy to be alive.

**6 months later**

I stood there looking at the pictures my mother had lining the mantle in our living room in utter disgust. I don't know why my mom insists on keeping these pictures here for everyone to see. I hated having to see myself for what I was every time I walk from my room to the kitchen.

"Why do you keep these here?" I asked holding my hand out for the tie my mother was holding in her hand. She handed me the tie then walked around me to the mantle where the pictures were.

"I like these pictures of you," she replied.

"So you like seeing your son in a hospital bed hooked up the dozens of machines that monitored everything that went on in and out of his body." Shinji replied.

"You know that isn't what I mean." She said. Shinji say the twinge of hurt flash through her eyes and he immediately felt guilty. He didn't mean to say things that would hurt his mother but sometimes he couldn't control the side of him that was a sarcastic asshole.

"Yeah, I know." He replied as he secured the tie around his neck and fixed the collar of his uniform shirt. Once his tie was in place he was ready for the day ahead of him. It was his first day back to school in nearly two years, so everything had to be perfect. He couldn't afford one slip up now that he agreed to go along with this crazy idea that his mother had.

She had been wanting Shinji to return back to public school ever since he was released from his indefinite hospital stay with the blessing of his doctors to do so. Shinji placed his favorite hat on his head and turned it into a position that he found both cool and stylish.

"Are you trying to get in trouble on you first day?" my mother asked as she followed me out the door.

"If they ask me to remove my hat I'll just take it off." Shinji said as he slipped into the passenger's seat and closed the door behind me. He watched his mother walk around to the other side and got into the driver's seat.

"I can't drive myself you know." He said to her as she climbed into the driver's seat and pulled on her seat belt.

"I still don't think you should wear the hat Shinji." She said as she started the engine and back out of our driveway. He let out a sigh before sitting back against the seat. Shinji knew that he was very well capable to driving myself to school, but his mother blatantly refused to let him do so.

'My cancer had destroyed my bones not my ability to drive.' Shinji thought to himself leaning against the door and looking out the window.

"I won't get in trouble mom." I said to her finally.

"Alright," She said as she continued in the direction of the school. Shinji readjusted my hat on my head nervously trying to make sure it was perfect before he got out of the car. He pushed my fingers through his hair trying to make sure everything was perfect; everything had to be absolutely perfect.

"If you don't get out of the car you'll never make it through your first day back to school." She said in a soft voice.

"What if they don't like me?" I asked quietly.

"Then I'll put you in a box and ship you off to the North Pole where you don't have to worry about other people and what they think of you." She replied as she leaned over, she pushed the button and released my seat belt from its hold before moving to push me from the car.

"I changed my mind; I don't want to go back to regular school anymore." Shinji said as he leaned back against her trying to prevent her from pushing me out of the car. "Take me home." He demanded.

"After all we went through to get you enrolled in this school. You can't just flake out like that." She replied. She leaned forward even farther and gave one hard push forcing me from the car.

"Come on mom, please. I don't want to go anymore. Just take me back home and homeschool me like you did before." He begged.

"No way, you said you wanted to go back to regular school so that's where you're going." She said.

"I'm begging you to reconsider." He said bending down to get a glimpse of my mother who was still sitting in her car on the curb. She only smiled and shook her head again.

"You can beg all you want but I'm not going to change my mind." she said happily.

Shinji rolled his eyes as he reached into the car and grabbed his school bag that was filled with brand new school supplies he had just gotten the day before. He closed the door, turning on his feels to face the gigantic building that he was going to have to call his new school. He swung the book bag onto his narrow shoulders before pushing his hands into his pockets and heading into the building.

'Never thought I would be back in a place like this' He thought as he walked back and forth through the hallways desperately trying to find the classroom that I had been showed yesterday when he and his mother had visited the school to meet his teachers and principal.

Now the hallways were filled with people it was nearly impossible for him to find his way around in the unfamiliar building. All of the routes he mapped out in his mind the day before where all scrambled in his mind.

"Hirako Shinji, you wouldn't happen to be looking for my class would you?" asked the small brown haired woman that was standing near the door to a classroom, Shinji recognized the woman from the day before when he had been introduced to her while being shown around by the principle. Shinji was never the best with names but at least he could remember what he looked like.

"Uh yes I was." he replied as he walked over to the door that she was standing next to. The hallways were nearly empty so the classroom was nearly filled with students.

Shinji scanned the room quickly from where he was standing near the door. The classroom was nearly filled; the bell had just rang and now all of the students in the hallway were no filling into the classroom and taking their seats. Shinji took note of the fact that he looked a lot older than the rest of the students in his class. That's because he was; he hadn't been to a regular school in two years and instead of starting off at the university level like he was supposed to he had to redo his last two years of high school and pass the end of the year exams.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the rest of the classroom?" asked the teacher as she shut the door and moved to stand next to her desk.

"Uh, my name is Hirako, Shinji." He said with a bow to the rest of the class. There were some laughs from around the room, along with some comments about his hair and how skinny he was. He ducked away from the front of te classroom and took a seat in the first empty seat he could find.

"Excuse me, you're stepping on my bag." Said a loud voice to his left. Shinji looked over to see a small blonde girl standing next to his seat holding her bag in her hands. Sure Shinji looked older than the majority of the class but this girl looked like a preschooler compared to him, and her high pigtails weren't helping her look any more mature than she already did.

The strap of her pink duffle bag was stuck firmly underneath Shinji's foot. Shinji picked up his foot and moved it closer to his other one.

"Uh, sorry." He replied quickly looking away from her.

The girl picked up her bag and moved over to her seat, which wasn't that far from Shinji's. She sat down in the seat and slid the bag under her chair. Shinji couldn't help but stare at the little freckle faced girl sitting two rows away from him. She turned around and caught his eyes for a second before she quickly looked away and seemed to go back to whatever work the teacher was telling them to do.

'hmm, this might not be as bad as I thought it would.' Shinji thought to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So, tell me about your first day." beamed his mother as soon as he got in the car. Shinji placed his bag on the floor in front of him and pulled on his seatbelt before he even opened his mouth to answer her question.

"It was fine," he replied simply.

"Did you find all of your classes okay?" she pressed. Shinji sighed.

"Yes mom," he said to her. He looked over at her only to be greeted with a look of concern.

"Are you feeling okay sweetie?" she asked.

"Yes, I guess I'm just a little tired." He said to her.

"I got a call from Kazumi today," She said. This really peaked Shinji interests, Kazumi, or Mama Zu as he liked to call her was the mother of one of Shinji's oldest, most trusted friends. Shinji met Kazumi's son Gin in the children's ward of a cancer treatment center when he was 7 years old and from that day on the two were almost inseparable.

"Is he okay?" Shinji asked urgently. His mother laughed softly.

"His surgery went fin, he woke up about an hour ago and was asking for you." She said. Shinji nodded and looked out the window.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Shinji asked finally.

"I guess we're eating out for dinner then." She replied.

"Hospital café food never sounded so good." He replied with a smile.

The ride was a total of three hours, but for someone like Shinji who never found sitting still for very long comfortable it felt like an eternity. When they finally got to the hospital they went right up to Gin's room and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the soft sound of his mother's voice. Shinji opened the door and walked into the room. Gin was sitting upright on the bed completely awake from what Shinji could see. There were thick bandages covering the majority of his head, but it looked like they had been moved so that he could pull his bangs from under the bandages and hang them over his eyes like he preferred them to be.

"How you feeling G?" Shinji asked as he stepped over to the right side of Gin's bed.

"Fine and surprisingly aware for someone who just got the majority of his vision taken away," Gin replied

"I'm over here," Shinji said tapping his shoulder. Gin turned his head to Shinji and smiled again.

"Sorry, I can't really see anything with these bandages on and they're also covering my ears so I can't hear that well either." He apologized.

"No need for that," Shinji replied. "I understand completely. So what's up with your eyes? What did the doctor say?"

"I am glad to say that I'm free of cancer," Gin stated. "At the moment, of course, but this endeavor has left me perpetually sightless, it might not be completely shot, but I won't know anything until I permanently get these bandages off in three week." Shinji nodded, Gin made it all sound so simple, like a cure for cancer was just going to fall from the sky any minute and land right in his lap. Him being diagnosed with a rare type of eyes cancer was probably the reason for his optimism. He knew from day one that there was a big chance his would lose not only both of his eyes, but his life. So far he only had to give up a little bit of his sight.

"I heard you're back in school now," gin said possibly trying to steer the conversation away from death and caner.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool." Shinji replied. Gin smiled then turned his head in some odd direction and shouted.

"Hey, mom!"

"I'm right here," she said to him. He turned and looked at her.

"Oh, well, if it's alright, can I go back to school too, you know if the doc says it's okay?" he asked sounding more like a child than I've ever heard him sound. His mother sighed, whatever trick he was trying to use on her worked and now she had to give in to whatever he wanted.

"Only if the doctor says it's okay," Mama Zu said.

The nurse walked into the room and announced that visiting hours were over and anyone who was directly related to the patient would have to leave the hospital at once.

"Are you ready to change your bandages?" she asked sweetly.

"Nurse Lan fan, I've been waiting for you all day." Gin replied finally sounding like the pervert that Shinji knew and loved. Shinji laughed before he and his mother stepped out of the door and went down the hallways to the elevator.

"So, you never gave me details about your first day." his mother said as she fished around in the bag for stray French fries.

"They laughed at me," Shinji replied simply.

"They didn't," she said almost in disbelief.

"I heard on guy call me a walking toothbrush and another said that my dentist really did a number on my teeth and that we should get back whatever money we gave to him." Shinji replied with a laugh when he remembered the face of the guy who had talked about his teeth.

'He had a reason to be jealous; his mouth looked like someone had beaten him in the mouth with a sack full of rocks.' Shinji thought to himself.

"Well, there's always tomorrow." His mother said.

"You're, right. When you start at the bottom of the totem pole the only place you can go is up." He replied. She nodded affirmatively.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hey Hyori, me and a bunch of the guy are going boxer shopping after school you wanna join?" shouted a loud voice through the hallway. Hyori rolled her eyes and cursed the day that Yokochini Kazuka was born. He and his band of unfriendly apes filled the hallways with shouts and loud laughter.

"ha, I don't know what disturbs me more, that fact that you guys go underwear shopping together, or the fact that your breath smell like a bitches ass when she's in heat." Hyori yelled in reply. More laughter erupted from the people around them and Yokochini rounded up the rest of his boys and disappeared down the hallway.

"You know that didn't make sense right?" said a familiar voice to her left. Hyori turned to see Lisa Yadomaru standing beside her with a handful of book.

"Yeah I do, but they don't." Hyori said pointing to the large group of guys headed down the hallways.

"Surely they can't be that stupid." She said.

"They are." Hyori replied simply. Lisa laughed.

"Hyori-Chan!" yelled a voice she almost regretted being able to recognize. Hyori had just enough time to sigh before she was pulled into a choke hold by none other than Rangiku Matsumoto.

"Dammit, get your boobs out of my face Matsumoto, I can't breathe." Hyori yelled trying with all of her strength to get away from Matsumoto. Rangiku released the girl and she nearly fell to the ground.

"But I haven't seen you in three whole days Hyori!" Rangiku replied. Hyori rolled her eyes and slammed her locker shut.

"So, are you coming out shopping with the rest of us Friday after school?" she asked. Hyori sighed again.

"I don't think I'll be able to." She replied.

"Why not?" The girl asked with a frown.

Hyori didn't want to reply. she didn't want to say that she was choosing not to come because she had no money to go shopping, or she didn't want to attend because she didn't feel like being seen as the ugly one in the group when she was out with all of her friends. Rangiku was the hot cheerleader, Lisa was the cute girl that hung out in the library and read book, Mishiro was the loud and bubbly bird-brained friend that made everyone laugh, Rukia was the girl that was cute in a simple kind of way, and Hyori was just Hyori. She was the small aggressive girl who didn't have the looks or the body to compare to the rest of her friends. She really didn't know why they were friends at all.

"I don't think my mom is going to be home." Hyori replied.

"Well she's home today, why don't you ask her if it alright. You could even spend the night at my house." Rangiku offered.

"No really, I'm alright, she told me that she wanted me to stay at home already." Hyori lied. Rangiku frowned.

"Alright then," she replied. "So what did I miss in class?"

"We got a new student on Monday." Hyori answered.

"Boy or girl."

"Boy."

"What does he look like?" Rangiku asked.

"He's right over there." Hyori said as she pointed down the hallway to a large group of girl that where flocking around someone who couldn't be seen from where they were standing.

"Where is he, I can't see him." she said standing on her toes to try and see over the crowd.

"The one with the hat," Hyori said.

"Hmm, he's okay." Rangiku replied after she was finally able to catch a glimpse of him. "He has a nice smile."

"Ch, if you say so." Hyori said indifferently.

The warning bell rang telling them they only had about two minutes to get to class before they were considered late. Rangiku grabbed Hyori and Lisa by the hand and pulled them into the direction of the classroom. Hyori went directly to her seat and threw her duffle bag down on the floor by her chair.

'3 hours of class, then I have lunch, three more hours, after school I have track practice and after track I can go home.' Hyori coached herself through her daily schedule trying to get herself mentally ready for everything she would have to go through that day.

"Are you staying after for practice?" Lisa asked, her face firmly planted in a book she was holding in her hands.

"Of course I am," Hyori replied. Lisa nodded.

"We have to run hills today," she replied.

"Great." Hyori grumbled.

Hyori hated running hills; in fact the entire team hated them. Spending an entire hour running up and down what had to be the steepest hill near their school was not fun.

"Each of you has 35." Instructed the couch before he started the timer and everyone stopped running. Hyori was the first girl that finished her hills with Lisa right behind her. They went to the bench and waited until Mishiro finished before they got ready to leave.

"How do you guys finish so fast?" Mishiro asked.

"I'm really small, I don't have a lot of weight to carry up the hill." Hyori replied simply.

"I don't know, I guess I'm just fast." Lisa said. Mishiro frowned.

"I wish I was as fast as you guys." She whined.

"You don't have to be as fast as we are Mishiro, you do long jump." Hyori said to her.

"But still, it would be nice." Mishiro grumbled. After practice was officially dismissed they all piled into Lisa's car and headed home.

"Bye Bye Hyori, see you tomorrow." Mishiro yelled with almost half of her body hanging out of the window as she waved goodbye. Hyori gave the girl a small wave before she went into the house and locked the front door behind her.

"Mom!" she yelled. When she got no reply she went directly to the kitchen to look for the note. Every time Hyori's mother left for a business trip she left a note.

'Hmm, she's going to America this time.' Hyori thought as she skimmed over the note trying to find the part where her mother said she left her money for food. After she read the note she threw it down on the counter and reached for the cookie jar.

"I don't even know why we have this damned thing, we don't even eat cookies." Hyori said as she reached inside and pulled out a handful of money. "Enough for groceries and nothing else," She said shoving the money back inside and closing the jar. She pushed it back into place on the counter before she finally got a whiff of what she smelled like.

"Okay, I really need a shower." she said grabbing her bag and running up the stairs to her bathroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**3 Days Later-Friday**

**Shinji**

Shinji sat on a bench with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. The gym teacher, a middle aged overly muscular man who probably had no other kind of teacher's certification except for a large amount of experience in sports and athletics walked over to him and looked down at him.

"Why aren't you running playing with the rest of the class?" he asked. Shinji looked around him and at the fierce dodge ball game that unfolding in front of him, the game had only been going on for about ten minutes and already a girl was hit in the face by the ball and sent to the nurse. Shinji pushed his hand deep into the pocket of his gym shorts and grabbed the piece of paper his mother had given him before they left the house that morning. He unfolded it and handed it to the man, it took him a while to finish reading, Shinji credited that to the fact that his mother probably packed the note full of large medical terms that the man probably couldn't understand. When he was finished reading he folded the note and handed it back to Shinji, who placed it back into his pocket for safe keeping.

"Well, you need this grade to graduate so you're going to have to do something," said the large man as he looked around for something that Shinji could do. He took a piece of paper from his clip board and handed it to Shinji followed by a pen. "You can keep score today, and I'll have to talk to your mom and doctor over the phone to see exactly what you can and can't do." He said; Shinji nodded.

The door to the gym was thrown open and everyone in the class turned to see just who was making so much noise. Two girl bounded into the gym carrying large bags along with them.

"Matsumoto, Sarugaki! Why are you two late!?" he yelled.

"Sorry coach, we got caught up in the hallway," replied the smaller girl. Shinji took the opportunity of her being so close to finally get a good look at the girl.

"Caught up how?" asked the teacher.

"There was a turtle!" Matsumoto screamed nervously. The smaller girl turned to look at her as if she wanted to punch her right in the face for saying something so stupid.

"What?" he asked

"Yes, there was a turtle in the hallway, we couldn't just leave it, because it was really small and it could have gotten hurt in the hallways with everyone stomping around like giants. So, we took it home." she said.

"Home?"

"Not our house, we returned it to the wild." She replied. The teacher shook his head and looked away from the girl.

"It's a good thing you're pretty." He said under his breath. Shinji looked over to the man but decided not to say anything about his comment. It was obviously something that no one was supposed to hear and no one did, except for Shinji of course. "Put your things down and get in the game." He said to the both of them.

They sat their bags down next to Shinji and walked out onto the gym floor. Because the teams had already been selected the two had to split up in order to keep the numbers even on both side. Shinji was supposed to be keeping track of the score but he was having too much fun watching the little girl with the big pigtails run around on the floor to avoid being put out of the game.

"Shinji, what's the score." The teacher yelled at him pulling him out of his trance and forcing him to focus on something other than the girl that had captured his fascination so quickly.

"Uh, 5-7, red team up by two." He said while looking down at a blank piece of paper like he had actually written something down.

"Alright," the teacher replied with a shrug paying no attention to the fact that keeping score in dodge ball was nearly impossible.

"It's actually 7 to 4 with the blue side in the lead." Said a familiar voice from behind him, Shinji whipped around to see Gin sitting on bleacher up from where he was.

"When the hell did you get here?" Shinji asked.

"About ten minutes ago, I actually said hello to you but you were too busy day dreaming about the blonde with the nice legs." Gin replied with a smirk.

"I wasn't day dreaming about her." Shinji replied as he quickly scribbled down the score that Gin had told him.

"Oh please, you were practically drooling all over yourself." Gin replied.

"Shut up," Shinji replied bitterly.

"Fine then" Gin said. "Well, since you don't like her, would you mind if I had a go at her?" he asked.

"Try it and I'll blind you completely." Shinji warned with a dangerous tone.

"I knew you liked her," Gin replied with a confident smile. "I could set the both of you up if you want." He added.

"You've been here less than an hour and you're already getting on my nerves." Shinji replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Hey, I was just trying to help you out seeing has how you-"

"Don't go there!" Shinji yelled loud enough for the entire gym to hear.

"Hey, who are you?" screamed the teacher. Gin stood from where he was sitting and pointed to himself.

"Yeah, you are you a student here?" the teacher asked.

"If I wasn't you'd be in some trouble wouldn't you?" gin asked. "I am you second new student with a terminal illness that prohibits him from participating in most physical activities." The teacher rolled his eyes and stepped closer to gin to try and keep their conversation as quiet as possible.

"So where's your caner?" the teacher asked.

"My eyes," Gin replied.

"Is it even safe for you to come to school, you know, your eyes are pretty close to your brain." The teacher said. Gin frowned.

"My eyes are ailing but my brain remains unaffected sir. I assure you, if there was any threat of my dropping dead anytime soon I wouldn't be here." Gin replied stiffly. The teacher nodded, after adding Gin's name to the role he walked away and returned to his previous spot.

"Could you have been a little more morbid?" Shinji asked.

"Yes, actually I could have." Gin replied with a smile as if the entire concept wasn't stomach turning enough with him smiling when smiles weren't appropriate.

Lunch wasn't a bad as Shinji had expected it to be with Gin around. He was able to tone down his creepy personality enough not to scare away the girls who came over to talk to him. Shinji ate his lunch silently surrounded by the hoard of girls the Gin had attracted in addition to the ones who were already flocking around him for no particular reason.

'At least one of us is having fun with all this attention." Shinji thought as he watched his best friend laughed and chatting with the girls around him like his life was completely normal and had been since they day he was born.

**Hyori**

"Don't pretend like you didn't see him because you totally did." Matsumoto said as she continued the mushy rant she was having about the new boy with the silver hair and his blonde friend. Hyori just sighed and continued to weave through the crowd of people to get to her locker and out of the build to the practice field.

"Of course I did, how could I not?" Hyori asked. She readjusted her duffle bag on her shoulder to make it easier for her to pass around people.

"So you can answer my question then." Matsumoto replied.

"You haven't asked my anything." Hyori replied.

"Yes it did! You weren't listening again!" she said nearly screaming.

"I was I just didn't hear that part." Hyori lied; she almost never listened when Rangiku and Mishiro talked about boys. It was most because she couldn't relate or participate in the conversation because she didn't know anything about boys.

"What do you think about his friend, the blonde guy with the nice teeth." Matsumoto said.

"Are we really having this conversation again?" she asked.

"Yeah," Matsumoto replied.

"Is he supposed to be special or something?" Hyori asked. Matsumoto rolled her eyes.

"You so dense sometimes," Matsumoto replied.

"What are you talking about?" Hyori asked.

"The reason I'm asking is because he like you." She said.

"He does not." Hyori said as he twisted the lock on her locker entering the combination. Once she got it open she threw her book inside and slammed it shut.

"He so does, you should have seen him in gym class. He was staring at you like you were the most interesting thing he had ever seen in his entire life." She said, Hyori rolled her eyes again but didn't reply.

The locker room was filled with new girls rushing to change into their practice cloths before the coach gave them extra laps for being late. None of them had really mastered that art of speed changing like Hyori, Lisa, and Mishiro had. They failed to realize that if you slipped your shorts under you shirt and wore a sport bra over their regular one to school that it would take half the time to change that it normally would.

Instead of pointing out the obvious the three of them chose to keep it quiet and watch the rest of the girls nearly kill themselves just to get ready in time. After a mile warm-up they broken off into their groups and worked on their individual events until It was time for practice to end.

Rangiku sat on the bleachers waiting for the rest of her friends to be finished with practice.

"Wow, you guys make me happy that cheer season is over." Matsumoto said.

"You know you could join the track team if you wanted; you're more than fast enough." Lisa said to her.

"I don't think so, I'm allergic to running." Matsumoto said. Hyori laughed inwardly, most of the things that came out of Matsumoto's didn't make much since but there were times when she said things that were actually funny. The four of them piled into Lisa's car and drove away from the school. After turning down another invitation the spend the night at Rangiku's house that night Hyori got out of the car and went into house to spend the night alone instead of with the rest of her friends.


	5. Chapter 5

**Shinji**

"It's too hot out here for this." Gin said as he looked out onto the baseball field at the rest of his classmates. Their game had been going on for only ten minutes and already three arguments have started over outs and stolen bases.

"I never knew that kickball was such an intense sport." Shinji said. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and continued to watch yet another argument.

"The little pigtailed one is a fire cracker isn't she?" gin asked as the two of them watched her and the teacher yell back and forth into each other's faces.

"Not without good reason, she was clearly safe." Shinji replied.

"She was." gin agreed. "I just hope she doesn't hit anyone, she looks really mad." Just as he said that the girl huffed loudly and looked around her as if she wanted to bite someone's head off.

"There she goes," gin said standing from the bench. "I wonder who it will be."

She stomped over to the ball and kicked it as hard as she could. The ball shot up from the ground and flew directly in their direction. Because gin was standing infront of Shinji he didn't see it coming and because gin was unknowingly standing directly in front of Shinji the ball smashed right into his friends face after it was dodged by him. The force of the ball sent him flying backwards and onto the ground.

"Damn," gin said as he leaned over the bench. "If I would have known you were there I would have let it hit me."

"That's great." Shinji said as he looked up at the sky trying to see past the stars in his eyes. "Am I dead?"

"No you're not, but if you lose any more blood, you might be on a fast track to the room upstairs." Gin said.

"Someone get the nurse and tell them to call the medics!" yelled the teacher. Shinji groaned.

"This is exactly what I didn't want." He said wiping some of the blood away from his face with the back of his hand. Gin managed to get Shinji up off the ground and into the building before the paramedics arrived. When they did Shinji was sitting in the nurse's office holding an icepack to his wounded nose.

When the medics finally got there they checked him out and told him everything was okay. The ball hit him hard enough to make his nose bleed but he didn't have a concussion. Even though he felt fine the nurse still insisted on him going home.

"Alright mom, I'll see you when you get here." Shinji said into the phone as he stared down at his shoes, which were covered in dirt and blood from his nose. The front office was quiet; there was no one there except for Shinji and the old receptionist behind the front desk. He placed the phone back on the receiver and went over to the bench to have a seat and wait for his mom to arrive

"Uh, excuse me." said a small voice from in front of him, the voice was small but it was full of attitude. Shinji looked up to see the little pigtailed girl standing in front of him with a nervous look on her face

"Yes," Shinji said moving the ice pack away from his face.

"I just wanted to say sorry, you know, for hitting you in the face…and making your nose bleed and all." She said to him. Shinji almost laughed.

"It's perfectly fine." He said to her. She moved over to the side of the bench and sat down on the far end.

"You waiting for your mom too?" Shinji asked.

"Not exactly," she replied solemnly. "I got written up for hitting you so I'm here to see the principal."

"Bummer," Shinji said lamely.

"Well, I really shouldn't have hit you," she said. Shinji rolled his eyes and sat back on the bench.

"Stop over apologizing," he said sternly. "You didn't do it on purpose."

"You sound annoyed," she commented. Shinji shrugged. In all truth he was, but he wouldn't want her to think that he was angry with her. It just annoyed him when people doted on him, especially after they found out the truth about him. He wasn't a baby and he hated to be treated like one.

"Not annoyed, just making sure you know our not a fault." Shinji replied. The door to the office opened and his mother walked in, Shinji could see the concern written all over her face.

'Great more babying,' He thought to himself as he rose from the bench and quickly made his way over to her.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Perfectly fine," he replied. "We have to get going before the blood stains settled, if they do they'll never come out." he said quickly as he walked out the door and straight out of the school.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hyori**

Hyori sat quietly as she listened to Rangiku's incessant rambling over something that she didn't find important at the moment. Hyori was too busy trying to finish her math homework before the end of lunch to be worried about whatever odd fantasies were bouncing around in Rangiku's head at the moment.

Apparently after Hyori and Shinji were sent to the office, the blondie's funny eyed friend came over to Rangiku and they talked for the rest of the class period. He even asked her for her number and they talked on the phone that night. All that excitement sent Rangiku's mind into a tailspin and all she could think about was Gin.

"Hyori are you listening?" Rangiku asked.

"Of course not," Hyori replied as she scratched at her paper with the eraser on her pencil, she was so close to answering the problem, but she just could figure it out.

"Well that's nice to know." Rangiku replied bluntly. "What are you doing?"

"Math homework," Hyori replied with a sigh.

"You're supposed to multiply the exponents not divide them." said a voice from behind them. The two of them turned to see Mr. Fox face himself standing behind them with his usual smile etched across his face.

Hyori went back to her notebook and erased the problem them redid it using Gin's advice and it actually worked.

"Wow, thanks." Hyori said to him. She scribbled down the answer to the last two problems and then closed her notebook.

"You're welcome." Gin replied as he moved to take a seat on the grass next to Rangiku. Hyori rolled her eyes. This has happened to her took many time for her not to know what was going to happen next. He would sit down and start sweet talking Rangiku and she would go all giggly and starry eyed, after all that happened Hyori would be turned into an official third wheel and her presence would no longer be needed.

"What's got you so down in the mouth?" Gin asked much to Hyori's surprise. She looked over and he was looking directly at her, at least from what she could tell he was.

"She's been worried about your friend all week." Rangiku said to him. Hyori frowned, she didn't know whether she wanted to punch Rangiku in the face or commend her for knowing what was really wrong with her without her having to be outright with her answer.

"Shinji? Why are you worried about him?" Gin asked, Hyori didn't answer. "Oh you like him don't you." Gin said with a smile. Hyori rolled her eyes again.

"No, I just don't see why someone would have to stay out of school for three days from a hit with a kickball." Hyori said.

"You know, you did kick it kind of hard." Rangiku said to her. Hyori huffed.

"It wasn't that hard," she said

"It was pretty hard." Gin said. "The sound it made when it hit his face echoed."

"Okay, it could have been a little softer but your acting like I tried to hit him on purpose." Hyori replied.

"We aren't acting like anything little one, we're just trying to make you realize that you DID hit him on accident and he's perfectly fine." Gin said to her.

"Then why hasn't he come back to school yet?" Hyori asked. There was a long moment of silence between the three of them before Gin could open his mouth to answer. Just as he did the bell rang over their heads, telling them that it was time for them to report to their next class.

"I'll see you guys later," Gin said as he quickly stood and made his way out of the courtyard.

"Well, I'll catch you later Hyori, I gotta get to old man Yama's class before the bell." Rangiku said as she grabbed her bright pink book bag from the ground and ran in the other direction. Hyori took her time, knowing that class would be exactly the same whether she got there on time or not.

"Hey!" called a familiar voice from across the courtyard. Hyori turned and looked in the direction of the voice, standing on the opposite side of the courtyard was Gin.

"What?" Hyori asked bluntly. Gin walked over to her, the air around them was heavy with seriousness; Hyori shuddered at the look on Gin's face. He looked morbid, like he was holding in some bad news.

"Follow me," Gin said simply as he ghosted right past Hyori and over to the path that lead out of the courtyard and into the building.

"Where are we going?" Hyori asked

"Woman and their questions…" was all he said as he walked right past the front office and out of the front door of the school.

"We could get in trouble for this you know." Hyori said to him.

"Hey," he said in a nonchalant manner. "You want yer questions answered don't ya?" he asked.

"Yes I do but do we really have to leave the school for you to answer a simple question?" Hyori asked.

"Yes and no," Gin answered

"Huh?" Hyori asked.

"No, the question you asked shouldn't require us to leave school grounds in order for me to give you an answer, BUT the thing is, the question that you asked isn't one that you should be asking me." he explain.

"….I still don't get it." Hyori replied. gin stood short and turned on the balled of his feet to face her, his movement were so fluid that it look like he was flying inches off the ground instead of walking like normal people do.

"I can't answer your questions because they aren't something that you should be asking me, so I'm taking you to someone who can." Gin said sternly.

"And who is that?" Hyori asked.

"Ugh, so many questions. You all are never satisfied." Gin said as he dug into his pocket and removed a set of keys.

"You drive?" Hyori asked.

"Only on occasion," Gin replied. "I'm not supposed to, but I'm still capable."

"Capable?" Hyori asked herself.

Gin car was modest, something that you wouldn't expect a student to be driving. This is probably the reason why he was able to hide the car in the teacher's parking lot. Gin opened Hyori's door before going immediately around to the driver's side. Hyori got into the car and closed the door behind her.

"Put your seat belt on," Gin replied sharply as he slammed his own door shut.

"You don't have yours on." Hyori replied.

"In my car you do as I say." Gin replied. Hyori rolled her eyes and pulled on the seat belt. After it was completely fastened and in place gin pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the street and away from the school.

The ride was short but the extremely quiet. Gin didn't want to answer any of Hyori questions and every time she asked one he came back with some stark remark that made her not want to talk to him at all.

When the car finally came to a stop Hyori sat up in her seat and looked around. They ended up in a neighborhood not far from the school; it was small and very welcoming. Gin climbed out of the car and headed up the driveway without even waiting for Hyori to get out of the car.

"Good Afternoon Mr. Kim!" he yelled to a small elderly man who was sitting on his porch drink tea and reading the paper. When Hyori finally caught up with Gin he was walking around the side the house that was right next to the one where the elderly man was sitting.

"Will you tell me where the hell we are?" Hyori asked.

"A placed we call the dungeon, but it's really just a simple basement." Gin replied simply. He stopped in front of a little window near the ground and kicked it softly exactly three times. There was a clock on the other side telling them that the window was open and they could come inside

**Shinji**

Sleeping was always hard for Shinji, especially after he had spent his entire day sleeping his life away. As much as he tried he couldn't sleep anymore but he was nowhere near motivated enough to pull himself out of bed and do something productive like eat lunch.

"If I could reach the remote I would watch TV, but it's all the way over there." Shinji said to himself as he stared at the remote control lying in the middle of the floor of his bedroom completely out of his reach. He was about to force himself out of bed when he heard three solid knocks on his window.

His bed was purposely position underneath the window so that he could reach it form his bed and not have to get up to unlock it. He reached up and undid the latch holding the window shut the then moved to the side so that Gin could slide through.

"Take your shoes off before coming down. Gin said to someone that Shinji couldn't see.

"Who are you talking to?" Shinji asked him.

"Can I get all the way inside before you bombarding me with questions" gin asked as he held his hand out to receive the two pairs of shoes that were being passed through the window.

"Pink shoes?" Shinji asked as he eyed the tiny pair of shoes in Gin's hand. Gin threw the shoes down on the floor and sat down on the bed.

"Yeah, I brought you a present." Gin said as he watched Hyori nearly fall through the window and onto the bed underneath her. She bounced hard against the mattress and landed on the floor with a hard thud.

"Uh, are you okay?" Shinji asked as he watched the little blonde haired girl stand from the floor and fix her skirt.

"Yeah I'm fine." She said as she tried desperately to hide the red on her cheeks.

"So, what brings you guys here?" Shinji asked.

"I thought I'd play video games while you talk to Ms. Hyori." Gin said as he slipped off the bed and over to the four large beanbags that were positioned on the floor in front of the TV.

"Your very backwards, you know that right?" Shinji asked.

"Backwards in what sense?" gin replied.

"In that you brought her all the way here to force her into a conversation with me." Shinji replied.

"I'm not forcing her into anything; she had questions to ask you." Gin replied.

"Seriously?" Shinji asked.

"I didn't drive all the way over here for no convo, get to talking you two." Gin said snapping his fingers.

"Gin," Shinji said calmly.

"Yes?" Shinji asked

"Get the fuck out," Shinji said bluntly.

"I'll be in the kitchen making lunch." Gin said as He headed toward the stairs, Shinji waited until the door at the top of the stairs closed completely before he turned to Hyori again.

"I'm getting up," Shinji said to her.

"….and?" Hyori asked.

"I don't have pants on, I need to get some." Shinji replied. Hyori's face turned bright red and she turned to hide her face. Shinji rolled out of bed and over to his dresser, he grabbed the first pair a pajamas pairs he could find and pulled them on.

"I'm decent now," Shinji said.

"Okay," Hyori said as she turned and looked at Shinji again.

"So, you had questions?" Shinji asked.

"Not questions, a question." Hyori replied.

"And what is it?" Shinji asked.

"Why haven't you come back to school?" Hyori asked bluntly.

"My mom doesn't think I'm strong enough yet," Shinji replied.

"Strong enough?" Hyori asked.

"Yep, she wants me to wait two more days until she'll even consider letting me go back." Shinji replied.

"Oh my god this is horrible," Hyori huffed. "Do you have like brain damage or something?" she asked only half seriously.

"No Cancer," he replied simply.

"Wait….What!?" Hyori yelled.

"….So that wasn't a question….it was a joke….i knew that." Shinji replied.

"Y-you can't be serious." Hyori said to him.

"Entirely," Shinji replied.

"So you….." Hyori started. Shinji went over to his bed and laid down on his stomach, his eyes still locked on her.

"Please…take your time. It can be a lot to take in." Shinji replied.

"How can you be so calm?" Hyori asked quietly.

"Because you were about to make a scene, but then you saw how calm I was and you unknowingly calmed down." Shinji said to her.

"So what happens now?" Hyori asked.

"One of two things; you can either 1. Stop talking to me and shun me like the rest of my friends did at my old school or 2. You can treat me like the human being I am." Shinji replied. Hyori nodded.

"So, what's your choice?" Shinji asked.

"As much as a freak as you try to make yourself out to be, I can't see myself treating you like anything else than what you are." Hyori replied.

"So, choice 2?" Shinji asked.

"Defiantly choice 2," Hyori replied.


End file.
